Comments on: Seriously, xkcd

By: jaime

jaime — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:56:45 +0000

If they offer it next year, I’m coming, too!

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:57:02 +0000

MC, I didn’t know you were getting married. Congratulations!

(On the other thing: oh yeah, screw lions, I want a daemon)

By: Martini-Corona

Martini-Corona — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:20:23 +0000

Oh piss. I’m sorry it overlaps. Fucking wedding.

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:01:14 +0000

Although of course, the end of Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy sucks for the newly-minted adults too, precisely because they make adult selfless choices. Wisdom is a painful thing, I guess, even for atheist “theo”logians. (At least it was equal-opportunity pain for both genders.)

If it didn’t overlap with Martini-Corona’s wedding, I wanted to go to an Oxford University summer seminar for teachers entitled “Literature and the Fantastic,” which discusses Narnia, His Dark Materials, LOTR, and Alice in Wonderland (all, of course, Oxford-related). I hope they deal with these questions. Maybe next year!

By: Meg Muckenhoupt

Meg Muckenhoupt — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:18:25 +0000

You aren’t missing much if you don’t remember “The Last Battle.” It’s dreadful. If you must recall it, get the recorded version by Patrick Stewart, who almost redeems the book. Almost.

But yes, I think that’s *exactly* what Lewis is saying. After all, grown-ups just doubt Aslan (and whatever did happen to those dwarves who thought they were stuck in the stable?).

Philip Pullman said “The end of innocence is the beginning of wisdom.” Of course, Pullman’s Golden Compass trilogy is theologically the polar opposite of Narnia- but *his* world would have a place for Susan, and whatever daemon happened to come with her.

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:30:37 +0000

I have read “Problem of Susan,” though I don’t remember it very well. Ditto the end of the Narnia series, for that matter.

Is the implication that the Pevensies’ stasis is a *good* thing, that staying in childlike Narnia innocence forever is what we’re supposed to want? (I don’t get Christian theology either.)

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:28:38 +0000

From Meg M., who commented on the Facebook-feed version:

SPOILER for the Narnia series

Note that out of all the Pevensies, Susan was the only one who was still alive at the end of the last book. Yeah, she gets to mop up the pieces when her entire family dies, and she doesn’t get to run into layers of Narnia forever – but she’s alive. The rest of the P-clan is in a stasis, forever running into layers of Narnia, but never getting anywhere, never changing, never gaining wisdom. But then again, I’m a Unitarian, and Lewis’s theology never really made sense to me anyway.

And yes, Susan’s exclusion from Narnia made me very, very mad when I read these books as a kid. It’s not *her* fault she grew up! What, you think Peter wasn’t admiring the girls who wore nylons and lipstick? Why is only women’s sexuality (in Susan, and the White Witch) so threatening?

By: Miriam

Miriam — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:14:43 +0000

Have you ever read the Neil Gaiman story “The Problem of Susan”? He deals with the fact that Susan’s entire family was killed in a train wreck, and that this is rather harsh punishment for liking nylons, more suitable to scary old gods than to what Christianity is supposed to be.

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:30:24 +0000

It’s true that Aslan’s kind of boring. But Susan didn’t think so. And, as Greg says, talking lions are cool in principle. Read “wanting to hang out with talking lions” as “wanting to live in an amazing fantasy world as opposed to post-war England.”

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:06:50 +0000

I dunno, talking lions are pretty cool in principle, the problem is when they start getting preachy (which, apparently, is always).